NEW BEDFORD — The driver of a school transport van carrying several Roosevelt Middle School students was stabbed in an apparent road rage incident Wednesday afternoon in the South End, police said.

Police arrested 19-year-old Aaron Maldonado at a Rivet Street apartment shortly after the incident for allegedly assaulting the 39-year-old driver, whose name was not released. The confrontation occurred at the intersection of Hemlock and Dunbar streets.

None of the students was hurt and, based on preliminary investigation, police believe the incident was fueled by road rage, Police Chief David Provencher said. However, he said Wednesday night he hadn't read the report and didn't know what triggered the attack.

Information also wasn't available about the weapon used and whether the van driver was in or out of the vehicle when he was stabbed.

The van, bearing the name of Jesse & Fernanda's School Transportation, which lists an address only of North Dartmouth, was still parked on Hemlock Street Wednesday night. A woman answering the phone at Jesse's just after 8 p.m. confirmed that the vehicle belonged to the business and said her son was the driver. She said he had been released from Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, where he had been taken for treatment, and would “be OK” but she declined to give her name or any further information.

Maldonado is “well known” to police and possesses a lengthy criminal record, Provencher said, but he could not confirm if Maldonado lives at the Rivet Street apartment in the 400 block where police found him.

Provencher said Maldonado was taken to St. Luke's Hospital after his arrest to be treated for a non-life-threatening injury, but the chief said he didn't have any details.

Passengers in the Econoline-style van included a group of 13- and 14-year-old Roosevelt Middle School students and an 18-year-old whom police could not confirm was a student, Provencher said. He said he did not know how many students there were.

They were taken home in other vehicles after the incident, he said.

No one answered the door at the third-floor Rivet Street apartment that residents said police forced their way into late Wednesday afternoon, later coming out with a handcuffed man sporting blood splatters on his clothing. A bag of trash sat outside the door and molding along the door frame had been broken off in places.